Amy Vanderbilt Quotes & Sayings

Only a great fool or a great genius is likely to flout all social grace with impunity, and neither one, doing so, makes the most comfortable companion. — Amy Vanderbilt

When we learn to give thanks, we are learning to concentrate not on the bad things, but on the good things in our lives. — Amy Vanderbilt

Parents must get across the idea that "I love you always, but sometimes I do not love your behavior." — Amy Vanderbilt

The best-dressed women I know pay very little attention to the picayune aspects of fashion, but they have a sound understanding of style. — Amy Vanderbilt

One face to the world, another at home - makes for misery. — Amy Vanderbilt

In Hollywood, not to have an analyst is virtually an admission of failure ... — Amy Vanderbilt

Breakfast is the one meal at which it is permissible to read the paper ... — Amy Vanderbilt

I am a journalist in the field of etiquette. I try to find out what the most genteel people regularly do, what traditions they have discarded, what compromises they have made. — Amy Vanderbilt

Ceremony is-really a protection, too, in times of emotional involvement, particularly at death. If we have a social formula to guide us and do not have to extemporize, we feel better able to handle life. — Amy Vanderbilt

The modern rule is that every woman should be her own chaperone. — Amy Vanderbilt

Do not speak of repulsive matters at table. — Amy Vanderbilt

Do not smoke without asking permission or sit so near (as in a train) that the smoke might annoy. — Amy Vanderbilt

I have no use for people who exhibit manners. — Amy Vanderbilt

Everyone knows that a man can marry even if he reaches the age of 102, is penniless, and has all his facilities gone. There is always some woman willing to take a chance on him. — Amy Vanderbilt

Good manners have much to do with the emotions. To make them ring true, one must feel them, not merely exhibit them. — Amy Vanderbilt

We must learn which ceremonies may be breached occasionally at our convenience and which ones may never be if we are to live pleasantly with our fellow man. — Amy Vanderbilt